The Dickinson press., 1887-08-20
ROMANCE OF THE PRESS.
THE WONDERFUL GROWTH OF NEWS
PAPERS IN THIS COUNTRY.
Extracts from the Address of a journal.
ist-A Look nt the Records of News
paperionn-Illustrations of the Spirit of
the Times.

ist-A Look mt the Records of News
Observation-Disclosures of the Spirit of
tho Times.
Lynn II. Meekins delivered the alumni ad-
dress before Western Maryland college OH
"Thc Romance of Journalism" Aftersaying
that criticism of newspapers was always n
good proof of their Nigor and usefulness, lie
continued: No newspaper has ever reached
or will ever reacll-leffectiol.. A thousand
years from now people will grumble at it Just
as much MS they do today. 1t is-and always
will be-a human institution, with human sins,
dealing with human affairs, and rejecting the
vice of humanity, rs well as the virtue Its
office is to print the news, to give the history
Of yesterday, to chronicle the joys and sor-
rows, the blessings and tho crimes. The
Texas editor who declared that newspapers
are bud, because many bad things happen"
summed up the philosophy of the situation.
Tho only way to make newspapers good is to
take the wicketlness out of the world, or to stop
people from talking about it, AS it now is,
iine people will read an account of great bat
tle where only one will wade through the pro-
ceedings Of peace congress. The strength of
the press consists, i'll part, Of the very fact
that it gives us picture Of human life, with
the shadow as well as the light
But il we examine the newspaper more
carefully we will find that crime takes up a
very small part of its pages, and that tho
columns represent all interests and oil depart
ments OF news and business effort. We find
the press an inseparable part of our national
existence, an Indispensable adjunct to our
liberty 1t is the peoples university, the mo-
tion's storehouse of facts 1t has given brains
market value and has enlightened and
motlernized every sphere Of labor Thomas
Jefferson said he would rather live in cou1-
try with newspapers and without govern
ment than in country with a government,
but without newspapers. "Once architecture
was the press" said Dean Stanley, "and told
great thoughts to the world in stone; but now
the press is architecture and is building up
the world of ideas and usages" "a journal
ist." exclaimed Napoleon l. "That means a
grumbler, censurer, giver of advice, a
regent OF sovereigns, tutor Of nations Four
hostile newspapers are more to be dreaded
than l0o, 900 bayonets."
LOOK AT THEIR RECORD!
In laSd where tho national growth has
bordered OH tho marvellous the increase in
newspapers has been over nine times as great
rs the increase i'll population Their value
has multiplied six times Us rapidly us tho
colntrys wealth. In the decade between
1870 and 1850, when the United States went
ahead at steam engine speed, the progress was
only one-third Of the progress of its journal
ism. There was no part of the advancement
that did not feel the influence Of the press.
Wherever a new settlement was opened the
newspaper was there to boom its attractions
When the Pacific railroads were being built
the printing press preceded the iron rails and
locomotives. Where prosperous city i'll
Dakota now stands newspaper was printed
on dry goods box before building had
been erected and before the infant town was
old enough to know its own name.
:he newspaper did not wait for the era of
swift transportation or the telegraph or the
telephone. 1t pushed out on its own behalf
1t sent special vessels to England to secure
early news: it established pony EXPRESSES
from Halifax to New Orleans; it gave the
government its first information in the Mex
lean war; it had news schooners lntcrcepting
bouts from Europe. When Daniel Webster
mnde famous speech in Bo"ton, Henry j.
Raymond put printing press mld type on n
steamer, got his report, hurried to tho boat,
wrote it out and by the time New York was
reached the edition of the paper was ready
for other cities. A result Of all this enter
prise is seen today in our magnificent postal
system, which is indirectly product of news
paper competition. and to which the news
papers contribute over 81 ,0UOOO0 n year.
Fortunes ARE spent every day for matter
which costs the reader two cents When
Emperor William made his famous speech
after tho battle of Sadowa, 81 900 in gold
III fo, transmission ~ a
paper When Stanley brought Livingstons's S
letters from the interior of Africa, $4,000
were spent in cabling them When the new
Spanish treaty with this country was signed
at Madrid an American Journal got it ali by
cable at nm outlay of $4,000 These are the
larger instances, but they illustrate the news
paper spirit No matter what news costs,
the papers will have it. They cover this
country with u throughness that allows no
guilty item to escape. They have sent expe-
ditions to the Arctic regions and to the
Equator, to Siberia and to Africa, to the
region Of the Eskimo and to the warm trail
Of the murderous Apache They have cx-
plored subterranean caverns md investi-
gated ocean wrecks i'll diving suits
But A DAILY INCIDENT
A few days ago / went carefully over one
"a ouA ASeAH'S AAS"'poPSio. ~ GOiI{1lucu, eA-
elusive Of all advertising. 77l different items
on almostevery subject Imaginable Adding
the distances that the different dispatches
had Travelled, the result was total of over
100000 miles. What work all this entailed in
the short space of dozen hours will have to
be left TO the Imagination. And yet it is
but daily incident of journalism.
At the close of the revolution there we're in
this country forty-three papers, whose aggre-
gate circulation was very low in the thou
sands. Now there arc IL, 900 newspaper pub
lications, which print and distribute every
year 5000, O,ooo,o0o copies, or over two copies
for every man, woman and child in the world.
IL you want to carry out the figures, you
will find that the newspapers of this connt,y
print every year the rather comfortable total
Of nearly 2OO,OO0,0OO words of matter. If
one person were to real twelve hours day,
he would be a good many thousand years old
before he got through this mass If Mr..
Rider Haggards "She," the wonderful woman
who waited 1900 years for young man
without becoming an old maid, had set out to
read as many newspapers as are published in